Redeeming Love
Chapter 2: Surf Wars
Logan
As I looked at the light shinning into my room I felt the dreading fear seeping into my body as I think of what I am going to say this morning to Veronica. I turn to the side to notice the bed empty. I was about to think I had dreamed it all up last night until I saw what looked like a note on the pillow next to mine and smiled. This would be just like her to disappear before I could talk to her, but I guess she is better off gone when Aaron decides to come after me. I smiled a huge grin as I read her words.
'Logan,
I wanted to be there when you woke, but I didn't want to cause you any trouble.
Veronica'
"Logan what the hell have you been up to," I hear Aaron yell before I actually see him enter the room. I had just put two strawberry pop tarts in the toaster when he came into the kitchen.
"Okay, I'll bite," I snap as he comes around the island shoving me into the back counter causing me to suck in a deep breath.
"You'll bite; you'll do more than that. You will be apologizing to your mother for taking out a credit card in her name and running up the charges," he yells into my face as some of his spit hits me.
"What are you talking about?" I sneer at him as I shove him off of me and move around the island. "I have no reason to do that," I say as I walk off. I wasn't going to be accused of stealing from my mom. I was a lot of things, but a thief isn't one of them. I called Dick to get a ride to school.
"Hey babe," my girlfriend Catlin Ford says as she wraps her hands around my waist. I wasn't really in the mood for her. She was for some reason not the right blonde for me. Damn it! I see Veronica walking down the hallway toward class as Duncan enters the same room slightly behind her.
I had spent time before I got hurt with Catlin and the guys at Dog Beach throwing a party, but it was broken up by the dimwit Sheriff who just waits for his moment to steal our booze. I hated seeing Veronica talking with Troy Vandegraff. He just seems like Duncan someone more suited for her, but after spending the night with her I am having a hard time getting her out of my mind.
I was laughing in my head as I heard our teacher tell Catlin to how to do her assignment. I knew she wasn't the brightest bulb, but she did so many other things very well. I was half way working and paying attention as I noticed Veronica and the teacher talking. I got more interested when they headed toward Duncan.
"I have your first assignment. Are you free after school tomorrow?" the teacher says looking directly at Veronica.
"I guess," Veronica says almost as if it wasn't worth her time. I wanted to make a statement about her time, but kept my mouth shut.
"We're doing a feature on Bodie Chang, you know him?" the teacher says smiling as I remembered I was working on it already. I just thought I would be the one to write it up since I surfed and knew all about the sport.
"Surfer. Up until 20 minutes ago, I was in study hall with him," she says looking at me out of the corner of her eye. Of course she knew who he was.
"That's the guy. So he's winning all these competitions. He's got another one up at Gold Coast. Let me introduce you to the guy who's doing the story," our teacher says as they walk toward Duncan. They have gotten to the other side of the room when she stops at Duncan's cubicle leaning over to talk with him.
"Duncan Kane, this is Veronica," she says as if she were introducing two people who hadn't known each other. Seriously who didn't know that they were a couple once upon a time?
She continues talking though, "Veronica's going to be taking pictures tomorrow and I arranged for you to ride with Bodie's parents," Duncan interrupts her.
"No, I'll drive," he says quickly. I wonder why he wouldn't want to hang out with Brody.
"Great, maybe Veronica can-," but Veronica stops her.
"I can drive too," she quickly interrupts. I was finding this more and more interesting by the moment. I wondered why neither wanted to ride with the other. I would have to fix this situation.
"Okay. Oil crisis be damned," the teacher states as she walks off leaving Veronica looking toward Duncan until she turns her attention to me. I see a faint smile on her lips. I bet she was up to something. I made sure to talk with the guys about letting Veronica's air out of her tires during lunch tomorrow. I said it twice because I knew she didn't have the money to repair a slashed tire. I also made sure that Dick knew to only do one.
"Thanks for the ride," I say as I jump out of Sean's jeep before heading up the driveway to the front door.
"Logan," my mom says the moment I enter the house.
"Mom," I say curtly as I walk by her heading to the kitchen to talk with Mrs. Navarro. She was the one person I could stand in this house. She was like a grandmother to me.
"How can I help you," an older woman asks as I enter the kitchen.
"Who the hell are you?" I snap as my mom enters the kitchen.
"Logan this is Marcy, she is the replacement for Mrs. Navarro," she says just as Aaron enters the room.
"Great I see Logan has met the new help," he says as he claps me on the back sending a shock through it.
"Where is Mrs. Navarro?" I snap moving away from him hoping he wouldn't hit me with the new help in the room.
"I couldn't keep a thief on staff," he sneers at me as I take the hint not to push the subject. I decided to just hang out the rest of the night in my room. I was tempted to call Veronica a few times, but held off not wanting to sound too clingy.
**LoVe**
"Here are your damn keys!" my dad yells at me as he throws them right at my chest. I look up barely having the chance to catch them as he walks out of the room. I look at the clock to see it was 6:30. Great another day full of crappy people and boring shit. I quickly take a shower and call Bodie to see if I could check him out while he surfs later that day. He quickly agreed thinking it would be cool to catch a wave or two together.
I had seen Veronica get out of her run down car and walk into the school before giving Dick the cue to let the air out of her tires. I laughed a little knowing that this shit is what made her plant the bong in my locker. I just hoped she wouldn't get too upset with me this time.
The class has been going for a while when I decide to egg Veronica on with the help of Catlin. Veronica is a few desks sitting at a computer screen. I was sitting near here just lounging in my chair with Caitlin talking. I was actually just putting the damn acting genes to use because I wasn't into Caitlin anymore, but needed her to goat Veronica.
"No, seriously, how difficult is it to find good help these days?" I say loud enough for Veronica's benefit.
"What are you going to do about your housekeeper situation?" Caitlin asks looking in Veronica's direction.
"We had to let her go. If you can't trust your domestics, you don't feel safe in your own home," I say seriously. I didn't but my parents did without even talking with me about it. Mrs. Navarro had become family to me when my own destroyed me at every turn. I hated them for letting her go.
"I won't miss her. She was totally rude to me every time I was over there," Caitlin says as I shake my head. It was more the other way around, but hey performance.
"Did you guys know that 90% of all identity theft is committed by relatives of the victim? That's an interesting fact. At least I think so," Veronica says turning to look at us.
"But you know what? No one cares what you think Veronica Mars. Not anymore. Not since you stabbed all your friends in the back," Caitlin says as I look away from Veronica because it was my fault everyone thought that. It made me a little upset to hear Caitlin actually dismiss Veronica like she did. That was my job, and no one else's.
"You seem to care a bit what I think," she retorts as I chuckle because it made Caitlin upset.
"Tell the truth Veronica. Did you just sign up for newspaper so you could be around Duncan?" I ask egging her on a little as she gives me a frustrated look. I bet I knew what she was thinking, but she never said the words out loud. She hadn't used my father's actions against me yet.
"No. I'm here so I can be closer to you," she replies plastering a smirk on her face. I found that statement a little too interesting. I give her a smirky 'ooooo'.
"In fact they're thinking of putting me in your fourth period government class," she replies.
"We've got computer lab fourth period," Caitlin says faster than I could realize Veronica was fishing. She was fishing about what my classes were. She was working the case. Of course she was working to free Mrs. Navarro. Veronica had always liked her.
"Oh, shoot. My loss," she says as she snaps her fingers giving me a look that was a little confusing. I wasn't sure if she blamed me or was thinking it was me all along. The thought that she actually thought I would hurt someone like that made me angry. I watch as Veronica smiles to herself at her new found information.
I am walking slightly behind Veronica as she rounds her car to notice that it had a flat tire. I gave a nod to Dick when he lifted his head up to give me a thumbs up. I am tossing an apple in the air with Sean as we walk by her. I decide to roll my apple across the back end of her car, but her look of disgust makes me give her the 'okay' hand gesture as I walk toward my other friends after saying, "Bummer" to her.
She gives me the dirtiest look I have ever seen her give me as she is slowly taking her jacket and sunglasses off. She already has the trunk lifted, and her tire iron in her hands to start changing the flat. I was a little upset when I saw Troy going up to talk with her. I wasn't able to catch what was being said, but if I didn't know any better Troy was flirting with her. My assumption would stand correct when Caitlin began complaining as she rode up to me on her little pink scooter.
"Hey," she says drawing my attention to her.
"Nice ride," I say half mocking her for the damn thing. She kisses me before I even have a chance to think about it.
"Hey, munch, how ya' doin'?" I say as she peels her lips from mine.
"Good," she says as I notice her mileage.
"You got two miles on there," I say as I realize that this was a new scooter not the same one she had the day before.
"I know. It's new," she says as if it was the best thing in the world until she notices Troy and Veronica talking. "What's Troy doing talking to Veronica?" she snaps making me a little irritated with her.
"What do you care?" I ask as I think that it's not any of her business what he does unless she is interested in him as well.
"I don't, I just…has anyone told him?" she says way too quickly for my liking. I watch as Duncan makes his way past Troy and Veronica only to see him stop and talk with them before Veronica makes a motion toward Troy as she follows after Duncan. I laugh at the irony of the two of them in the same car since they broke up. I let them leave before I decide to make a move.
"Hey I'll catch you guys later. I think I am going to catch Bodie in action," I say as Dick mutters something under his breath. The guys all leave as I see Caitlin mumbling into her phone as she quickly hangs up when she sees me looking at her. The drive down the PCH highway was boring, but I got to see Weevil doing his civic duty by cleaning up the highway. I smirked and tossed a bottle out my window in his direction as I passed by him.
When I got to the beach I stayed by my SUV for a little while avoiding both Veronica and Duncan. I knew that they were both working on an assignment and didn't want to bother them. I waited until after they went down the beach a little ways to hang out with Bodie for half an hour. Veronica dn Duncan had began to head back to the area when I decided to go to my SUV and wait for them to leave.
***LoVe***
Veronica
I was relieved as we were able to drive to the beach in almost silence. I mean this was Duncan Kane the boy I once dated, but right now I hardly even knew who he was. I was looking out the widows when I saw Weevil along the side of the highway picking up trash. I hated the injustice that seemed to corrupt the town of Neptune. The task I had was very simple as I took shot after shot of Bodie as Duncan interviewed him and also as he surfed. I thought I saw Logan once out in the water, but couldn't see his yellow SUV.
We were on our way home when red and blue lights flash in the rearview mirror. "Wonderful," Duncan mutters as he pulls over to the side of the road. I groan as a deputy approaches the car.
"License and registration," he says as he flashes his flashlight into the SUV. Duncan reaches over to the glove compartment and pulls the papers out handing them to him.
"Can I have the two of you step out of the car?" he says as he looks over the papers in his hands.
"Is there a problem?" Duncan asks as he opens his door to get out.
"Got an impound notice on this vehicle. Bunch of parking tickets and a moving violation dated October 3rd," he says as he motions for me to get out as well. Duncan looks toward me puzzled as if the date meant something, but he didn't know. I couldn't believe he wouldn't know the date that his sister died was that one. So Lilly got a moving violation the day she died. I would have to look into that for future reference.
"They want to impound the car. Guess there were a bunch of tickets," Duncan says into the phone no doubt with his dad. He seems to listen to the person intently as they talk. "No, not mine. Lilly's," he says as I am talking with my dad.
Dad, we're just outside of town on the PCH. About a mile from the Real Inn," I say as he lets out a breath.
"I am in the middle of something. Can you get Wallace to pick you up," he says softly as I hear other voices in the background. "I also want to know how you ended up out with him," he says calmly as I hear a thud.
"It's a long story. I'll tell you when I see you," I mutter as I think about calling Wallace when I notice a text message from Logan, 'Need a ride'. I look behind the SUV to see him pulling up and Mr. Kane doing the same on the other side of the road. Logan gets out of his SUV and walks toward me. Jake Kane heads for the deputy to speak with him before coming toward us. I see him coming toward us as Logan stands closer behind me.
"Duncan? Did you get everything out of-" he starts to say before stopping when he sees me. "Hello, Veronica," he replies warily.
"Mr. Kane," I say as Logan motions to me.
"Mr. Kane," he says as I reach inside the SUV and pull my things out. Logan takes my bag from me as I follow him all the while knowing the look I was getting from both Duncan and his dad.
"Ugh!" I groan as soon as I slam the door of Logan's SUV.
"What did my car do to you?" he mutters as I look over at him.
"It's payback for the flat tire," I snap as he looks away showing me that he was behind it.
"I made sure they didn't slash it. I wanted to take you to the surf meet, but Troy stepped in and things went south," he say as I look toward him.
"Why?" I ask as he pulls over to the side of the road.
"I wanted to talk to you about the things you saw and how you were gone the next morning," he says as I look away this time.
"I'm not going to blurt that out. I don't care how pissed I am with you I would never hurt you like that. Logan I would like to help.." I start but he puts his hands up.
"I can handle it," he says in a voice that tells me this subject is done. I wasn't done with it, but I would let it go for the moment.
"Okay, I wouldn't do that to you. I can see why you have issues, but I do not like the way you take out your frustration on me," I say as he nods his head quietly. "I did need you this past year and you turned your back on me. I don't know how to get past that, but the fact that you sabotaged my car is bigger than this. Logan you need to stop hurting me because I can always do worse," I say as he looks directly at me crashing his lips to mine.
I am lost in the moment as his lips move against mine causing my thought to leave me. All I could think about in that moment was how wrong this was, but then again how it felt so perfect. I pull away as he opens his eyes.
"Sorry," he mutters as I give him a small nod. "I just needed you to be quiet, and well.." he says as he can't find words to finish his sentence.
I see flashes in my mind as I try to find words to tell Logan off for kissing me. I could stand by my dad for what he thought was right. Allowing the 09ers to turn against me like Caitlin staring at me from her pink scooter this afternoon. Logan smashing the LeBaron's headlight with the crowbar. Going to Shelly Pomroy's party where one of my so called ex-friends drugged me and raped me. At the same party where I saw Duncan with another girl, or stand by Logan, Duncan and my dead best friend's family. I chose Dad. It's a decision I live with every day. I am not going to let someone make me feel bad for that choice any longer.
"Tell me why you turned everyone against me. I know you say it's because I chose my dad, but was that all," I ask as he looks out the window.
"It started out because you chose your dad, but then it turned into hatred. I hated you because I wasn't with Lilly the day she was murdered. Lilly broke up with me because you told her about the kiss with Yolanda. God, Veronica I would have done anything for you to talk with me before running to her," he mutters as he begins to cry.
"I did it because it was cheating. Logan I would like to think you would have done the same thing if you saw me cheating on Duncan. Lilly was my best friend. I owed it to her," I say as I see anger flash quickly on his face as he clenches his fists before slamming them onto the dashboard.
"I thought you were my friend as well," he sneers at me as he turns the SUV on and begins to drive.
"Can we stop by the Neptune Grand?" I ask softly as we are about to reach the center of Neptune. He turns and gives me a pointed look.
"What for?" he mutters.
"I need a little help with a case I am working on," I say as he lifts his eyebrow at me. "It's about the person who used stolen credit cards in your mom's name," I finally say as he stops the SUV.
"Isn't that case already solved? I thought that they had the confessed criminal in jail," he mutters as I see we are stopped in the front of the Grand.
"Oh, all right. Fine. What do you need me to do?" he asks with a look of doubt. I give him a smile.
"Excuse me," Logan says snapping at the lady behind the counter.
"We need to talk to somebody in security right now, he snaps impatiently and loudly, "Right now!" The lady behind the counter looks worried.
"Logan will you just back off and let me handle it?" I say as nicely as I could.
"You handle it or I handle it but we're gonna get to the bottom of this, right now," he yells a little louder than he needed to.
"No! Would you just stand over there? You're scaring people," I say as I turn to the quivering lady, going for a friendlier tone.
"Hi. I'm really hoping you can help me with this," I say as I look to her.
"What seems to be the problem?" she asks as I think of what to say.
"I came in here about a month ago with a guy…long story short, I'm pregnant," I say quickly embarrassed to be saying it out loud and in front of Logan no less.
"Gee, no wonder you play these games with me" he mutters snapping his teeth together.
"O-kay?" she says softly seeing the irrational and annoyance as signs of weakness.
"Um, here's the thing. The next part's a little embarrassing. I don't remember the guy's name," I say as Logan growls at me. "Or what he looks like. Tequila? Never again," I continue pointing at myself with two thumbs chuckling a little before adding. "My fiancé here is wondering if there's any sort of surveillance video we could take a look at or…? Here's the credit card bill. He had me pay for the room," I say lower looking right at Logan.
"Let me go talk to a manager," she says as she takes the credit card bill. Logan gives me a look as I give him a wink.
"That was good," he says as we step away from the desk. "What?" he questions.
"You were a..." I say gesturing, "Little bit over the top," I finish as he looks puzzled.
"You think it worked? A little bit," he counters me as he makes the same gesture I just did.
"I can bring it down. You try it. You try being bad cop," he says with a dead tone like my dad would use.
"Don't make me laugh. I am still trying to get past you and me," I say with a light chuckle.
"It's easier being good cop than it is bad cop," he mutters looking away as the receptionist returns with a bill. She lays it on the counter.
"I'm sorry but we only keep video surveillance for two weeks…" she starts as I bring my hands to my face in such a distressing manner as I start to cry bringing Logan back to me. "But I did get your detailed bill summary," she says slowly.
"Oh, thanks," I say very chirpy as we walk away with the bill in my hand. I was a little livid with Logan as I saw who signed the bill. "Guess who signed for room service in a room charged to the Echolls' family credit card?" I snap once we are in his SUV.
"Who?" he asks innocently.
"God Logan do you think I am stupid. You don't have to play games with me," I snap as I shove the paper at him. His eyes go wide when he sees the signature.
"What the Fuck, Caitlin," he mutters crinkling up the sheet of paper, but I grab it before he can destroy it. "I honestly didn't have anything to do with this," he says as he looks very pale.
"Logan," I ask worried.
"Of course, my dad thought the same thing. I don't need to steal from anyone," he snaps as I realize what might have happened.
"Did he?" I ask as he glares at me out of the corner of his eye.
"Did he beat me for it, no? I told him I didn't do it and walked off," he says as I know he is angry I even thought it.
"I'm sorry. It's just I don't want to see you hurt," I start but he stops me.
"I don't need your pity Veronica. I don't need anything from you once so ever. Just because you think you know what Aaron does, doesn't change anything with us," he snaps as he stops the SUV beside of my car. I want to say something, but the look he gives me keeps my mouth closed.
As I get into my car I start to cry because Logan is hurting and has no one to turn to. I hate that he thinks he has to do this all alone. I would help him if he asked me. As I drove home I made up my mind. I knew Logan would hate it, but I was choosing him right now at this moment. I would stand by him even if he didn't want me to.
I had to admit with his help I was able to eliminate him as a suspect and point my direction onto Caitlin, but who would be her accomplice. I didn't understand why she would have to steal from anyone; she was from a wealthy family. It wasn't until I stumbled onto a phone number and the owner did I realize who her partner was.
I knew it was only time for Logan and some 09er lackeys to find out it was Chardo, and go after him. I was lucky though because I was walking ahead of them, and was able to intercept him by shoving him into the girl's bathroom.
"Watch it little girl," he sneers at me so unaware of the shit he is in.
"Confess, it's good for the soul," I snap back at him hoping he was brighter than what he was acting like.
"What?" he questions as he looks around.
"Moron says what," I say totally pissed off now.
"What?" he repeats.
"You're busted, Chardo, do I have to spell it out for you?" I snap thinking how he could be so stupid.
"Yeah, why don't you?" he says making himself comfortable.
"All right. So one day, you go to pick up your grandma at the Echolls' house, and she asks you to take out a bag of trash, and there they are in front of you, virgin, high-limit, pre-approved credit card applications. Just phone in the confirmation code and start spending. Then you use Logan Echolls' family credit cards to take out Caitlin Ford in the manner to which she's accustomed. Gourmet meals, five star hotels, limo rides. But the best part about it…is that your cousin Weevil takes the fall for you. So you're promoted," I say thinking I came up with all the nice little details.
"I didn't want that to happen. Weevil's like my brother," he snaps at me not even looking the slightest bit sorry for his actions.
Chardo was dumber than I thought if he actually bought the bullshit he just gave me. He went on how he was in love with the skank, how she planned to run away with him. Yet, what he doesn't know is that she is just like every other white girl, she was using him. I hoped Weevil got him before Logan, and his friends did think because his betrayal to Weevil is more important that Logan getting even. I watched as Chardo opens the door and leaves me in the bathroom alone. I prayed Logan stayed away from him; he didn't need another run in with Aaron.
Chardo pauses with his back to Veronica before wrenching the door open and exiting the bathroom.
I decided to use the fake ID I had of Lilly's to get a copy of the ticket she got on Oct. 3rd thinking it might help narrow the timeline of her death. As I approached the counter where glad that Inga wasn't there. I knew the good thing about visiting the Sheriff's Department on a Sunday is that most of the people who work on weekends don't remember me. They're all new.
"Is there something I can help you with?" the lady asks as I pull out my wallet.
"Yeah, the insurance company called my dad and said we have an outstanding ticket. Um, there's the license number," I say as I pass the number to her.
"Okay and can I see your ID?" she asks as I pass her my ID, just as Lamb comes in behind me. She motions with her hand "just a minute" and walks away from the counter.
"What are you doing here?" Lamb snaps as he pauses beside me.
"I'm just paying off a ticket," I say as he glares at me suspiciously, and then walks toward his office. I hated that he now sat in my dad's old office.
"Hey, any luck finding Chardo Navarro? No? You should talk to my dad; he's really good at that sort of thing," I ask as he turns to look back at me.
"You got a smart mouth, kid," he snaps as I give him a smile and shrug. He heads into his office.
"Yeah, I don't think there's any wiggle room on this one," the lady says when she returns handing me the photo.
"Thanks. I'll mail in the payment," I say trying to flee as fast as I could after seeing the photo.
"All right, Miss Kane. Sorry about the bad news," she replies as I am half way out the door.
I had a rough night of sleep thinking about this whole thing. Now even as I am sitting at lunch I am having a hard time focusing on anything as I blankly staring at the ticket which was comprised of details on one side and photos of the license plate of Lilly's car and of her driving on the other. Lilly is smiling broadly. I haven't gone more than thirty minutes without glancing at the ticket. One of those automated intersection cameras caught Lilly running a red light at 6:02pm, almost two hours after her supposed time of death.
I don't know if it's the photo of Lilly, singing and smiling on the final day of her life that's been haunting me, or the fact that suddenly none of the Kanes have alibis that hold up – Jake, Celeste, even Duncan. Dad was right. The case doesn't add up. I made a choice a long time ago. Stand by Dad or stand by the people tearing him down.
I barely notice Troy as he sits beside me. I quickly shove the ticket into my notebook.
"You didn't make it Saturday night," he says as I look past him at Logan. Truth be told I wasn't in the mood to party with a bunch of wealthy jackasses.
"I-I guess I didn't feel I was even a little bit wrong or sorry," I say not even with a hint of sorry.
"Well a wise man once said that a "No" is like a "Yes" except with different letters and arranged in a different order and spoken out loud but, you know, it disappears on the wind," he says which is a little amusing to me. I give a smile to Wallace as he sits down beside us.
"There goes the neighborhood. They just put Golden Tee in at Sac-N-Pac. You need to go there 'cause you know I can get you free games-" Wallace says as I watch a sad event.
"Guys, look," I say motioning behind Wallace. Caitlin goes to sit next to Logan. One of the girls deliberately moves to block her. Caitlin tries to sit further along the table, but she is again blocked. I watched with pained familiarity as that was me when Logan turned his back on me. Caitlin is ostracized and walks away.
"Hate to be her," Wallace says as he opens his drink.
"Yeah, that would suck," I say as I know the feeling all too well. I look back to Logan as he stares directly at me. I look away quickly as Wallace and Troy gets up as I follow them with their talk of some video game. I just needed an out.